Client aggression and the disenchantment process among Israeli social workers: Realizing the gap

Abstract

The professional habitus and values of social work, are challenged when social workers encounter client aggression. The current study was set up to understand the ways by which workers confront and cope with client aggression. In-depth interviews were conducted with 40 social workers in general municipal services. The participants included district managers, agency managers, supervisors, social workers and administrators. We identified a process consisting of four stages: (1) Rationalization, minimization, and denial of client aggression, including self-blame; (2) Emotional reactions, including hurt, anger, helplessness and shame; (3) Reevaluation of one's beliefs, attitudes and values; (4) Behavioral transformation. The process of going through the four stages is not always linear, and workers may go back and forth between stages. The results are discussed in terms of the gaps between social workers' values and the reality they are facing. Such gaps serve as an engine of change, explicated by theoretical concepts of social judgment theory.

Whose fault is it? Attribution of causes of patient violence among exposed and unexposed community‐based family physicians

“…These interpretations tend to shape their experiences of the violent encounter, their emotional expressions and their reactions to the event (Bowling & Beehr, 2006;Chapman, Styles, Perry, & Combs, 2010;Drach-Zahavy et al, 2012;Enosh et al, 2012;Goldblatt et al, 2020;Lau, Magarey, & Wiechula, 2012;Luck, Jackson, & Usher, 2007;Tzafrir et al, 2015).…”

“…Many studies from different disciplines refer to the impact of violence by patients and their families against healthcare staff (e.g. Drach-Zahavi, Goldblatt, Granot, Hirshmann, & Kostinsky, 2012;Enosh, Tzafrir, & Gur, 2012;Findorff et al, 2004;Gascon et al, 2012;Goldblatt et al, 2020;Kvas & Seljak, 2015;Landau & Bendalak, 2010;Tzafrir, Enosh, & Gur, 2015); however, there is scant research on the perceptions of healthcare providers who were exposed to patient aggression and violence, compared to healthcare providers who were not. For example, do CBFPs who were exposed to patient violence view the factors leading to such violence differently than CBFPs who were not?…”

“…Several studies have addressed healthcare staff members' personal perceptions of a patient's violent behaviour and how staff members can produce different interpretations of the situation. These interpretations tend to shape their experiences of the violent encounter, their emotional expressions and their reactions to the event (Bowling & Beehr, 2006; Chapman, Styles, Perry, & Combs, 2010; Drach‐Zahavy et al, 2012; Enosh et al., 2012; Goldblatt et al., 2020; Lau, Magarey, & Wiechula, 2012; Luck, Jackson, & Usher, 2007; Tzafrir et al., 2015). For example, in relation to Attribution Theory, previous research (Drach‐Zahavy et al, 2012) found four variations of aggressive encounters between healthcare staff and patients: the power struggle, the therapeutic encounter, inverse power relations and victim‐to‐victim encounters.…”

Administration as Confinement

“…This is problematic, I feel, for the following two reasons: firstly, a sense and the experience of abuse and frustration can go both ways (cf. Tzafrir, Enosh, and Gur 2015). Caseworkers often are equally caught and tied to the administrative demands they have to enact.…”

Who Else Is in the Room? The Good Mother Myth in the Social Worker‒Mother Client Encounter

“…The encounters of social workers with clients, not necessarily mothers, are more explored, often on a dynamic level, considering transference and counter-transference and object relations and other psychodynamic processes (Mandin, 2007; Karpetis, 2010). There are also analyses that involve social workers’ values and how these are confronted when facing clients (for example, Tzafrir et al , 2013). These analyses are of great importance to social work practitioners, policymakers, scholars, and clients, but in this article I would like to look at the social worker–mother client dyad through a different lens.…”